All figures here are estimates built from the documented vanilla formulas — useful for planning, not a substitute for in-game testing. Values can shift slightly between Minecraft versions.

How to Use the Beacon Color Calculator

  1. Pick a stained glass (or stained glass pane) color for each layer directly above the beacon, starting from the bottom-most layer.
  2. Leave a layer as “none” if you don’t want it to affect the beam — the tool stops mixing at the last filled layer.
  3. Read the resulting beam color as a hex code and RGB value, plus a step-by-step breakdown of how each layer changed it.

How the Color Mixing Works

Beacon beam tinting doesn’t average all the glass colors together at once. Instead, it mixes sequentially from the bottom up: the lowest glass block sets the beam’s starting color outright, and then every block above it blends its own color into the running beam one at a time, using new color = (current beam + this layer’s color) ÷ 2. Because each step only takes a straight half-and-half blend of whatever the beam currently is, earlier (lower) layers get diluted more with each subsequent mix, and the topmost layer ends up having the strongest pull on the final color.

This means the same set of colors in a different stacking order produces a different final beam tint — putting a saturated color on top gives a noticeably stronger result than burying it at the bottom of a tall stack.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the order I stack glass colors actually matter?

Yes, significantly. Because mixing is sequential (each new layer blends 50/50 into whatever the beam currently is), the topmost layer has the most influence and lower layers fade out the further they are from the top. The same colors stacked in reverse order give a different final tint.

What if I only use one layer of stained glass?

With just one layer, the beam becomes that color exactly — no blending happens until a second layer is added above it.

Can stained glass panes be used instead of full glass blocks?

Yes, stained glass panes tint the beam the same way full stained glass blocks do; the beacon only checks the color, not whether it’s a full block or a pane.

How many glass layers can affect the beam?

You can stack colored glass as many blocks high as you like above the beacon (up to the world height limit) and every one of them contributes to the mix — this calculator lets you plan up to 6 layers at once to preview a typical stack.

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